The present invention is generally concerned with electrical apparatus and more specifically related to electrical switches.
The prior art is replete with electrical switches of various types. However, all known prior art 360.degree. rotation switches contain an even number of potential switch positions. The present invention utilizes an odd number so as to increase the number of possible electrical connections per position by placing all the brushes on a diameter of a commutating rotor wherein there are two brushes traveling each circular path thus interleaving the remote radii of the diameter intermediate commutating contacts of other switch positions. Although such an interleaving of the commutating contacts and practice of the present inventive concept may be accomplished by placing the brushes on two radii which are not coincident with a diameter of the commutating rotor, the expense of producing and manufacturing a set of stator brushes which provide uniform contact in this configuration for some types of switches becomes much more expensive than the present in-line design. While the word commutating has previously been used to connote mechanical retification, it is used herein to refer to the "ON - OFF" action obtained by contact or no contact between the electrical pads on the rotor and the stator brushes.
Using the present inventive concept in combination with a resistive network allows the formation of an impedance network system which with the use of one switch and four impedance networks produces integer step changes of impedance from input to output of the electrical circuit as the indicated switch position changes from 0 to 9.